


This is the End

by XSmashX



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Airbending & Airbenders, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst, Bending (Avatar), Earthbending & Earthbenders, Enemies to Lovers, Everyone Is Gay, Firebending & Firebenders, Fluff and Angst, I Don't Even Know, Inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender, M/M, Major Character Injury, Mpreg, Multi, No Major Character Death, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Seventeen/Avatar, Supernatural Elements, Waterbending & Waterbenders, Woozi is special
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:54:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24417700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XSmashX/pseuds/XSmashX
Summary: Half a century ago, the nations lived in peace. People of water, earth, fire and air lived and worked alongside each other in harmony. The world changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Fuelled by greed and hungry for power, they would stop at nothing to become the rulers of the world as they knew it. Only the Avatar had the power to stop them, but when the world needed him the most - he disappeared, never to be seen again. Now, fifty years later, the war wages on. As a new generation prepares to take over for their aging seniors, things are as unpredictable as ever. Will peace be restored to this once brilliant world? Or will everything go up in flames?
Relationships: Boo Seungkwan/Chwe Hansol | Vernon, Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups/Yoon Jeonghan, Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Xu Ming Hao | The8, Kim Mingyu/Lee Jihoon | Woozi, Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Seokmin | DK
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	1. The History

**Author's Note:**

> Hi friends, during quarantine I binge watched Avatar: The Last Airbender and was inspired to create this story. I'm really bad at updating, but please leave a comment or kudo if you like this! I'll try to update regularly! Originally I was going to directly base this off of the show because Mingyu just reminded me SO much of Appa, but ultimately I decided against that and just.... did whatever this is. Thank you!
> 
> XSmashX

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Brief Explanation of the World

Half a century ago, the nations lived in peace. People of water, earth, fire and air lived and worked alongside each other in harmony. There was only one being that had the power to control all four elements – the Avatar – who ensured the peace and cooperation between nations. An Avatar is chosen once per generation. When the reigning wielder becomes too weak to continue, their abilities will be passed down to the chosen child ensuring that the cycle will repeat, and peace would be kept. Life was peaceful and harmonious for centuries, but everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Fuelled by greed and hungry for power, nothing stopped them from destroying anyone and anything that stood in their path. The only thing that could put a stop to their destruction was the Avatar, but when the world needed him the most, he vanished. He was never seen again, and the war waged on without mercy. 

Now that fifty years have passed, the destruction caused by the Fire Nation is only just becoming quantifiable. There have been no recent sightings of anyone from the Air Nation for over a decade, the last known groups had taken to higher ground – sheltering themselves deep in the mountain ranges in hopes of evading an attack, while the Water Nation has been split into two and separated at each pole of the planet. The Earth Nation build up their defensive walls to shield their oasis from the Fire Nation, but after decades of brutality and hundreds of lives lost their strength has weakened beyond repair. They found themselves deep within the thickest rainforest, their defences weakened but holding strong until the inevitable forest fires came to burn away everything that they had left. After being split in two, the North Water Nation built itself up on principles of trade and quickly established itself as a leader in the global economy – their oil was used by every nation and as long as they could extract it, the Fire Nation could not touch their communities. Although their oil made them powerful, most of the wealth that the North Water Nation could have accumulated went into trading for food with the Earth Nation. As the global agriculturalists, the Earth Nation supplied much of the food surplus to both Water Nations as well as the Air Nation when there was need. Their advanced farming techniques helped them to produce bountiful harvests each growing season, and the dependency of the Air and Water Nations on their trade provided them with more leverage at the discussion table. This, however, was less effective in their defence against the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation inhabited the fertile circle surrounding much of the Pacific Ocean – also known as the “Ring of Fire” because of the abundance of naturally-occurring volcanic activity in the region. This meant that they could produce their own food and left the nation with no dependency on the Earth Nation and an even greater reason to seek their destruction. After all, they were providing sustenance for the enemy. 

The Air Nation was always quiet. For centuries they led with an unparalleled system of governance and were regarded as the epitome of knowledge and civilization. Rumors swirled around that the greatest Air Benders could transcribe messages and stories from the wind itself, and that knowledge from generations of Air Benders before were hidden in a secret code of sequences that only the most trained ears could pick up. They were powerful – too powerful, and the Fire Nation was quick to become wary of their existence. This made them the biggest target for the attacks waged by the Fire Nation, and as a result they were the first group to disappear. To this day, the whereabouts of the Air Nation is unknown. After their last sightings, a decade ago, no one is sure whether they went into hiding or if the boasts of the Fire Nation are true and the group was brutally defeated in combat. Although the other two nations could do nothing but sit and watch as a truly glorious nation fell to the force of the Fire Nation in a world without the Avatar, but they swore that they wouldn’t let the same fate become of their own homes. 

By joining forces against the Fire Nation, the Earth, Air and Water Nations built an impressive military block at the beginning of the great war. Comprised of only the most skilled benders and fighters from each nation, their strength evened out the playing field against the Fire Nation and proved to be the most important asset for all groups. Chosen fighters are trained from birth – only the strongest and healthiest children are chosen for this important job and are sent to specialized school academies to learn the ins and outs of strategized warfare. Benders are chosen for the military based on excellence in their skillset. After years of training and honing of abilities, benders can take an exam that will determine whether one is eligible for service. Only if one is lucky will they be chosen as a fighter and develop bending skills as well. These people are the members of the military that will grow to become generals and commanders, and who are held in the highest regard in their nations. As bending skills only begin to develop after one reaches the age of maturity, such skills need to be honed from the moment they appear. Even the slightest slip up can mean the difference between life and death for a bender of the elements. After the disappearance of the Air Nation, the Fire and Water Nations scrambled to re-establish their force, but there was always something missing in the ranks. Without the power of the Air benders and with less trained fighters, they began to lose battles. 

Every day as their futures became less certain, the Nations of the world grew more wary of their neighbours. With tensions on the rise, it became harder to work together peacefully and both sides kept losing valuable members as a result. They needed a leader – some kind of unifying force to keep them together – something like what they had lost when the last Avatar had disappeared years before. Only then could they even dream about defeating the Fire Nation and restoring peace to their world.


	2. Ten Years Ago

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An Introduction to Jihoon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ** contains minor character death

Lee Jihoon was born premature. He was underweight and unexpected, but perfectly healthy. As you can imagine, his parents – his father being a fighter and his mother being one of the most impressive air benders his nation had ever seen – were quite disappointed when it was announced that he was ineligible to train as a fighter because of his haste to remove himself from his mother’s womb. This meant that even if he were to develop impressive bending skills like his mother, he’d never be able to become a general for the joint military. Although the couple’s bitter disappointment lasted only mere minutes after their child’s arrival, their joy of becoming parents quickly overshadowed any of their doubts. After trying for children for years and experiencing many losses, the couple had been blessed with this small bundle of joy right at their end of their reproductive years. They were the oldest couple to conceive in the Air Nation’s history, and every family celebrated with them at his long-awaited arrival. Even if he could not be the fighter or the general that would lead the military to defeat the Fire Nation, he would grow up loved and cherished by everyone around him. 

In his childhood, Jihoon and his friends ran through mountain pastures, playing in fields of alpine flowers and splashing through ice-cold brooks that bubbled up from between the granite slabs that surrounded them. He grew taller like the mountains around him, although he could never pass his friends his own age, and his hair grew longer as the wind whispered through his locks. Until his thirteenth birthday, Jihoon had never even heard of the Fire Nation. He’d lived in his bubble for all of his years, soft and lean like world that surrounded him – full of willowy grasses and hard granite, and then his bubble was burst in a fit of fire and left in rubble. 

He had left his home only briefly that morning to venture to his best friend’s house. His mother had informed him that since she and Jihoon’s dad had business to attend to, he would be having breakfast with Bumzu’s family and heading to school afterwards. Bumzu was a couple of years older than Jihoon, and was training to become a fighter for the Air Nation, but he would be sure to drop Jihoon off on his way to the Academy. When Jihoon arrived at the door to Bumzu’s house, the other’s mother quickly ushered him inside. 

“Jihoon-ah, come in quickly! It’s so cold out there.” She explained, “I’ve made some porridge, it’s in the pot above the fire. Please help yourself.”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.” Jihoon replied, dusting off the thin layer of snow that had accumulated in his hair on the short walk over.

Bumzu joined him shortly after, bounding down the wooden steps from upstairs in a hurry. “Jihoon, did you hear?” he mumbled around a mouthful of porridge, “After this season – they said I can begin my final season of training! Then I can go and join the military!”

“Why do you even want to join the military? That sounds exhausting.” Jihoon gaffed. 

Bumzu looked at him as if he’d grown two heads suddenly, and then lowered his voice so that his mother couldn’t hear from the other room.

“Ji, this is literally my life’s purpose. Like, there’s nothing else that I can do for myself and my family. Being able to fight against the Fire Nation would be a dream come true… I can just imagine the looks on their putrid little faces as I crush – “

“- the Fire Nation? What the hell are you talking about?” Jihoon was confused, to say the least. He knew about the Fire Nation, yes, but why did Bumzu want to crush them? Why would anyone want to crush anyone? Weren’t they all just human beings? 

Bumzu sighed, “Ji, you really haven’t learned anything about the war yet? It’s been going on for like – I dunno, forty years? Haven’t your parents – “

Just as Bumzu was about to finish his sentence, there was a commotion from outside. Both of the boys shot to their feet and were over at the window in a split second to see what the fuss was about. From the front window of the house they could see down the ravine into the main settlement of the Air Nation, but now that view was obstructed by a plume of thick grey smoke. Bumzu’s mother joined them from the other room but gasped as soon as she caught sight of what lay ahead. 

“Oh no,” She mumbled, “they’ve found us.”

The trio stood in shock for a few seconds until another explosion rocked the town centre, getting closer to the hills where their homes were. Jihoon felt a cold had grip his wrist and the Bumzu and him were roughly tugged away from the dread that lay beyond the panel of glass. 

“Come, come quickly! This way.” Bumzu’s mother ushered them towards the back door on the other side of the kitchen. 

“Mom – what’s happening? What’s going on!” Bumzu wailed.

“The Fire Nation, love.” She whispered, “They’ve found us. It’s time for us to leave.” 

She shoved her arms through her jacket sleeves, grabbing whatever she could on the way through the room. Bumzu frantically shuffled into his own overcoat and reached for his bag, leaving Jihoon still trying to process everything that was happening. As soon as the trio made it through the back door, they could hear the mechanical wailing skimming through the bitter air. The smoke plume that was rising in front of the home was no longer grey, but a thick black mass of unbreathable tar. 

“Up the hill! Hurry,” Bumzu’s mother herded the children further from the dwelling, “just keep going. At the base of the mountain there’s a cavern – we’ll hide out in there!”

Jihoon scrambled over the rocks, trying to keep up with Bumzu’s long strides. As the earth shook beneath their feet for the umptieth time, he turned to look back as the rubble he was sure would be left. Instead of the rubble of once beautiful buildings, he locked eyes with a man. The man was tall and slender, with a sharp nose and a gaze that burned brighter than the fire ball he held in his right hand. A firebender. Jihoon’s breath caught in his throat, but before he could react the fire ball was launched from the bender’s hand. 

With bated breath, Jihoon watched as the ball hurtled through the air and struck Bumzu’s mother directly in the back of the head. Her entire body lurched forward and blazed into a blinding white flame. He watched as her body became charred beyond recognition, her flesh singeing into black, and then completely disintegrating, leaving only a pile of dust in its wake.

“No!” Bumzu shrieked, “No, no! Mom!” He staggered back down the slope to where his mother had just been standing, but she was no longer there.

Jihoon shot forward, ridding his stomach of the porridge that he’d just eaten a half hour before. The porridge that Bumzu’s mother had made him. Her body was no longer visible, but the stench of burning flesh would permeate in Jihoon’s mind for as long as he would live. Which didn’t seem like a very long time at this moment. 

“You!” Jihoon righted himself as he heard Bumzu’s wail, “You killed her! I’m going to kill you!”

Jihoon reached his hand out to stop his friend from chasing down the bender that had produced the fire ball, but Bumzu was already halfway towards the vile man. The man’s gaze shifted towards the older boy, but his face remained unchanged as the fighter barreled towards him. 

“Bumzu,” Jihoon screamed, “Wait! Stop – you can’t – “ But it was already too late to change the other’s mind. The man remained unmoved as the teenager threw himself towards the bender, only raising his hand to produce a spark that sent Bumzu sprawling across the rough granite. 

“Don’t waste your energy, boy.” The man spoke, “Your time will come soon enough.”

Bumzu grunted, scrambling to find his footing as he stood to face his opponent. The blood that dripped from his eyebrow blurred his vision, and the stinging in his knees and across him palms told him that he was scraped up pretty badly, but he homed in on his target. This is what he was trained for. He knew what he was doing. 

Jihoon’s pulse thrummed through his body. As his best friend squared up to the fire bender that had taken his mother’s life, all that Jihoon could hear was the screams reverberating from the town beneath them. The sounds of death carried by the wind. He wondered where his parents were – if they were still alive. Jihoon thought of his classmates, of the people he grew up with. Nothing would be the same after this. He clenched his eyes shut as another explosion sounded down below. His lungs fought to fill themselves with air, but all that he inhaled was bitter smoke that burnt the back of his throat. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Bumzu mid-flight with his fist extended towards the fire bender’s face. Time slowed down as contact was made, and then – nothing. Bumzu fell to the ground unmoving, and the bender lurched forward to finish the job.

“Stop!” Jihoon’s voice finally caught up with him, “Don’t touch him!”

He lurched forward to shield his best friend’s body from further harm, watching as the man’s face split into an eerie smirk. 

“Oh, you poor thing,” the bender sneered, “this must be really hard for you. Don’t worry, I can make it all go away.” 

Jihoon stood above Bumzu’s unmoving form, never breaking eye contact with the fiery man. He could hear his blood pushing through his veins, screams now forgotten as the world went silent. His fingers twitched at his sides and he felt a pressure building in the pit of his chest. No one would hurt his friend, no one would touch Bumzu so long as he was around. 

“You,” Jihoon started, “picked the wrong day to pay us a visit. Do you know what day it is today?”

The man had the audacity to look perplexed on for a second before his smirk widened into a full-blow grin. “Today is the Air Nation’s dooms day.” He replied.

“Wrong.” Jihoon spat, “Today is November 22nd.”

The ground rumbled beneath their feet, but this time there were no explosions or smoke. The fire bender looked around for the source of the rumbling but turned up short. Slowly, his gaze returned to Jihoon’s trembling form. The boy’s gaze had become unfocussed, and the wind was picking up around the duo – whipping through the fire bender’s long locks. Jihoon felt it building up inside of him, reaching out from the depth of his chest, curling its way up his throat and through his feet into the granite beneath him. Blinding, white light shot forth from his fingertips – sizzling through the air towards his opponent. The man’s shriek was cut short as he crumpled to the ground, unmoving. Dead, Jihoon thought. The man was dead, and he had killed him. 

“Today,” He breathed, “is my birthday.”

He dropped down next to Bumzu, frantically feeling for a pulse. He gripped at his best friend’s wrist, searching, before moving to his neck. There was none. Nothing was left. Bumzu was dead, gone. And Jihoon was alone again. 

White light bled from his eyes, pooling in the dips of his cheeks before spilling onto the ground around his friend’s body. The world around him turned white, and not from the snow that steadily fell from the heavens above them. The shaking of the ground increased, rumbling from deep within the Earth’s crust and the wind whipped past Jihoon’s bitten-red ears. He tilted his chin back and wailed into the abyss that was once his home. White flashed out from his throat and engulfed the valley in an explosion of heat that melted even the bronze sculpture that once stood in front of the town hall. Then, there was nothing.


	3. Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jisoo and Seokmin are best friends. Seokmin must be protected at all costs.

Laughter bubbled up from within Seokmin’s chest as he watched Jisoo struggle in the opposite canoe. The bay was rough today, with a biting wind and white caps rolling along the tide. Jisoo’s canoe sloshed from side to side and the older boy was dangerously close to being tipped into the frigid waters, but Seokmin knew Jisoo could handle it. Thus his laughter continued.   
“Hey – Seokmin! Stop that! Help me!” Jisoo whined from his canoe. 

“Hyungie ~ you look so cute when you’re struggling like that though.”

“If you don’t – ahhhg!” Seokmin watches, bemused, as the canoe tips once, twice, and then tosses Jisoo into the blue depths of the Arctic Ocean. 

The boy emerges from the surf spluttering and gasping as the cold seeped through his parka. As Seokmin’s laughter echoed back to the duo from the ancient ice packs that lined the bay, he decided to have mercy on poor Jisoo. Gathering his paddle, he maneuvers his canoe over to the sodden Prince to hoist him aboard. Jisoo was pale and his hands were trembling, but he was unharmed. 

“Hyungie ~ are you okay?” Seokmin sent him the brightest grin he could muster up, in hopes that his hyung was not too mad at him. 

Jisoo furrowed his eyebrows and glared at the younger, “I’m fine – but I, I think I saw someone? Under the break just before the drop off. I could just see an outline.”

Seokmin’s smile faltered, “You what? Hyung, did you hit your head somewhere? Are you hurt?”

“No Seokmin, I’m serious. It looked like the outline of a boy. Can we just – paddle over there to check?” Jisoo nodded his head towards the edge of the bay, where the open ocean starts. The was nothing there except for glittering blue waters and the occasional iceberg. 

“Uh, you know if they see us near the open ocean we’re going to get throttled right? Like, absolutely decimated.” Seokmin stared toward the offending blue, suddenly curious. “But I guess so!”  
He handed the extra paddle to Jisoo and they hooked the latter’s canoe up with the tow rope before they made their way towards the mouth of the bay. 

“Just to the left a little bit ~ ah! He should be here!” Jisoo wobbled to the edge of the canoe and then shoved his head down under the wake. 

“Hyung! What the-“

Jisoo popped up again, spluttering. “He’s there! There’s a boy just floating! We have to help him!”

“What? Let me look, Hyung. Keep the boat steady – if you can.” Seokmin taunted. 

Jisoo stuck his tongue out in response, but shifted to the other side of the boat as Seokmin prepared to dunk his head under. 

After Seokmin had adjusted to the cold nipping at his ears and fluttering up his nose, he opened his eyes. Blue – there was nothing but vast, empty blueness for miles around him. He saw a seal flash through the depths in the distance, but as he looked deeper there was something else. Maybe 30 feet below him in the murk, there was a head of blonde hair and a pale face looking back at him. But the figure wasn’t really looking at anything. Their milky eyes were open and unblinking, completely and utterly void of life.   
He emerged, choking on the salty water. 

“Well?” Jisoo prompted.

“Hyung I think – He looks dead.”

“You think? Anyways, Minnie. You’re going to tie this extra tow rope around my waist okay? Then I’m going to dive down there and get him. When I tug on the rope, pull us up. Do you understand?”

Seokmin was overwhelmed. He’d never seen a dead body before, and he never wanted to ever again. His bottom lip trembled uselessly. “Hyungie, what are we going to do with a dead body?” Seokmin was all but wailing at this point. 

Jisoo reached out to ruffle the younger’s hair, “Minnie, we’ve got to take him home with us. His family is probably looking for him. We have to put him to rest.”

Seokmin blubbered but reached for the end of the rope that Jisoo was holding out to him.

“Alright Minnie, I’m going under now. Hold tight okay?” Seokmin could only nod in response. 

With a splash, Jisoo disappeared into the depths. He was one of the best swimmers in the village, Seokmin knew, but he was still worried. His knuckles were white as he gripped the tow rope, and he scanned the surface of the ocean for any signs of danger. Surprisingly as he watched the surface of the ocean calmed. There were no more white caps and the surf had died down. Before he could really think about it, he felt a tug on the rope. 

Bracing his feet on the walls of the canoe he tugged and tugged until Jisoo’s head broke through the surface with the body in his arms. With some difficulty, he hoisted the dead weight into the canoe first, and then reached back to help his hyung out of the water. While Jisoo caught his breath, Seokmin leaned forward to examine the mystery boy. He was unnaturally pale and was wearing a type of garment that Seokmin had never seen before. His shoulders and torso were covered by a light blue tunic that reached down past his thigh, and underneath he wore tan coloured pants. The boy’s feet and arms were bare – just pale, pale, pale skin. Upon further inspection, the boy’s face seemed flushed – like there was still some blood flowing through him. Seokmin grasped his face between his palms and stroked his fingers across the unconscious boy’s cheeks. His eyes had closed somewhere in the process of Jisoo pulling him up, but Seokmin noticed a faint twitch of an eyelid as he moved the boy’s head left, and then right to get a better look. 

“Jisoo hyung, I think he’s actually alive!”

“What?” Jisoo scrambles towards the pair, “Is he breathing?”

Seokmin stops, and watches, “No – But look at his face! Look there’s – he’s –,“ he broke off as the boy’s eyes shot open. The murky grey orbs stared straight up, completely unfocussed, and then the boy coughed. A terrible gurgling sound rose from deep in his lungs, and water spewed out of his bluish lips. 

“You’re alive!” Jisoo exclaimed.

Together, Seokmin and Jisoo hauled the boy so that he was sitting upright. Water continued to bubble up from between the small boy’s lips, but eventually he gasped for breath between coughs. Seokmin was overwhelmed, and his lip began to tremble again as he patted the frigid boy’s back. 

“I’m so glad that you’re not dead,” Seokmin mumbled, “that really wouldn’t have been good for my mental health. And your family would have missed you a whole lot, too.”

The boy, who had been silent for a bit now, finally spoke up. “I have no family.” He stated. 

Seokmin blinked down at him with round eyes, “You can speak!”

“Minnie, of course he can. He’s just probably exhausted. Let’s row to shore and find him some warmth.”

The trio bashed into the pebbly shore with little grace, and then the two Water boys scrambled to hoist their sodden find onto solid ground. The boy’s limbs were limp and useless, so Jisoo called out for help from a dog sled. At his whistle, a pack of five village dogs rounded the bend with a sled in tow. The dogs greeted the trio with yelps and licks, and then settled down to watch Seokmin and Jisoo maneuver the sickly-looking boy onto the bed of the sled. 

“Seokmin, hop on with him. Keep him warm for the ride home.”

Seokmin draped himself around the smaller boy, opening his parka to tuck the other’s face away from the biting air. “Okay!” 

Jisoo gripped the bar of the sled and planted his feet firmly on the tracks. “Hike!” He called, and they were off.


End file.
